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Illustrator Spotlight - Claudia Frittitta

Sound Waves Reading 5/5/23

Melbourne-based illustrator and graphic designer Claudia Frittitta views every project as an opportunity to create something meaningful as well as beautiful. So, when Firefly Education approached boutique illustration agency – The Illustration Room – in search of a talented illustrator, the partnership was inevitable. For Claudia, it was a rare opportunity to collaborate with other artists on a larger scale.

‘I’ve always admired the eclectic mix of styles all the illustrators brought to the agency,’ Claudia says. ‘This was the first project where I was part of a bigger team of illustrators. It’s always so interesting to see how other creatives think.’

Having spent seven years as a graphic designer, and three as an illustrator, Claudia’s passion resides in creating contemporary, playful and innovative design. She describes her own style as ‘pretty loose and free flowing’.

‘I love playing with the texture of traditional mediums, even though I’m mostly digital these days. I’m always drawn to bright colour combos and patterns.’

When creating indelible characters and settings for Sounds Waves Decodable Readers, Claudia draws much of her inspiration from her own life and the world around her. ‘I like spending time on the characters. I often look at street style and interior design images for inspiration - I think they help add a lot of personality and convey a good sense of individuality. Drawing on my own memories in relation to the stories also really helped me imagine settings and build compositions. If there’s no luck there, adding some cheery colours into the mix always livens up a scene!’

Claudia used this approach when illustrating Chop Chop, a story about people preparing dinner before friends come over.

‘Chop Chop made me think of cosy evenings and yummy leftovers!’ She adds, ‘Different ingredients make for really fun compositions too.’

Another of Claudia’s favourites, Where am I? allowed her to incorporate the vibrantly colourful illustrations that are a big part of her style.

‘The Australian landscape is made up of such a diverse and inspiring palette of colours, which made Where am I? a really fun one to illustrate.’

For Claudia, being part of such a wide-ranging project was obviously one of the most rewarding aspects of illustrating the Decodable Readers.

‘Every book explored something new and it was really fun to draw such a vast variety of subjects. I loved that Firefly actively encouraged diversity within its readers and made a point of highlighting flora and fauna native to Australia. I also really enjoyed being part of a team of illustrators and seeing how they brought the stories to life!’

Check out Claudia’s work on her website or Instagram.

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